Tikhtak

In Kony's Shadow - Online Exhibition

Christian Aid has recently launched an online exhibition called In Kony's Shadow  (Warning that readers might find content disturbing) It is the story of Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army and those it left behind  – from children forced to become soldiers to civilians caught up in the conflict. In my time working for CMS I  took part in a Campaign called "Break the Silence" highlighting the plight of many children who were taken captive by Kony and forced to become Child Soldiers and others who were displaced from their homes. It is incredible that almost 10 years on and he has still ot been caught.

I'm back blogging...

I haven't blogged since May 2011 but I have decided to re-open my old blog to attempt to bring together all the different strands of my life. Running my own business SCA, Coordinating a Christian Charity WSP and freelancing as a drama facilitator. I have tried to explain the focus of my blog in the About this blog page. I worked as a Youth Advisor for CMS when I decided to originally blog in 2005 and was encouraged and inspired by my colleague and friend Jonny Baker. Once I finished at CMS in 2009 my blogging cheerleaders were gone and by  2011 I began to run out of steam and time and so stopped. BUT now I am back.

These are some of the things that I might have blogged about iI hadn't stopped in 2011,

The Royal wedding (May),

Bin Laden killed (May),

Amy WineHouse death (July)

Holiday to Canada (July-Aug),

English riots (Aug)

Gaddafi Killed (Oct)

In 2012

The Torch Project  (jan)

Cruise Ship Costa Concordia runs aground (jan),

Cold snap (Feb)

Discovery of Prehistoric Penguin (Feb),

Fabrice Muamba Collapses in game (March)

Man City win premiership (May)

Chelsea win champions league (May)

The London Olympics (July-Aug)

Goodbye to Zach (Oct)

Gangham style fever (Dec)

In 2013

DREAM Schools Project begins (Jan),

New Pope (march)

Man Utd win premiership (May),

Trip to Disney Land (May),

Amma and Daddy visit London(July/Aug)

Syria Crisis (July/Aug.)

 

World to Rights & Manila DVD Books

Thanks to the hard work of my colleague Mike North, we have two books available to view on line and even buy from our 2009 World To Rights tour. The World to Rights Book shows pictures and comments from all the venues we visited throughout the year and the Manila Dvd Book shows the process we went through in making a DVD about Street Children in Manila, with no small help from Jigsaw. Either click on the links in this post to view them or click on the badges in the side bar. Once you are on the site you click on the front cover to turn the page and you can click a button to make the picture full screen.  Although Mike and I will be leaving CMS as employed staff at the end of this month we are continuing with a CMS project next year 2010 on the environment in partnership with Arocha UK. More will be revealed.

The 3 Yorkshire Peaks Conquered in a day

We set off at 5 30am in the morning when normally most people are sleeping. Not today! There were scores of walkers everywhere walking for various charities. There were 400 BT walkers alone on a team building day. We scaled the first peak within the first few hours but straight away the legs were feeling heavy. Burning up the hills and feeling like jelly going down. The second peak was quite a walk from the first and this seemed to last forever but the scenery was amazing and the morning mist had cleared to be a beautiful day. Peak 2 was conquered some 8 hours after setting off. The journey down was steep and cruel on the knees but we all made it down. At this stage Merlin, (a friend of Mikes) decided 2 was enough and the rest of us continued on. As we scaled the final peak Anita started to struggle too with a blister and reluctantly we had to leave Anita to try and continue at a blister sensitive pace. So the rest of us got to the third peak and celebrated taking pictures from the top. As we began to descend to our amazement Anita appeared over the brow....she had made it too. Check out more pics on my flicker. If you still want to give some many towards CMS youth projects in the UK it is not too late. Just log on to our just giving web page.

Off to walk 3 hills in Yorkshire for charity

Tomorrow morning we plan to set off at 5 am to complete the Yorkshire 3 Peaks walk within 12 hours. The reward for doing this is apparently a medal and a tie, as well as raising over £1000 for CMS youth work in the UK.  Check out our just giving page if you would like to give something still. The walk takes in the 3 summits of Pen-y-ghent (694 metres - 2,276 feet), Whernside (736 metres - 2,415 feet) and Ingleborough (723 metres  2,372 feet) all in one circular route. The aim is to do it by 5pm so I can then get back to Derby to catch my train back to London. It may be actually more of a walking challenge to get back to Brixton from St Pancras!! There is a lot of press and publicity cruelly saying that I will not make it. All I have to say is, to borrow the words of the much maligned Prince Hal from Henry iv part 1.

I know you all, and will awhile uphold
The unyoked humour of your idleness:
Yet herein will I imitate the sun,
Who doth permit the base contagious clouds
To smother up his beauty from the world,
That, when he please again to be himself,
Being wanted, he may be more wonder'd at,
By breaking through the foul and ugly mists
Of vapours that did seem to strangle him.
If all the year were playing holidays,
To sport would be as tedious as to work;
But when they seldom come, they wish'd for come,
And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents.

Watch this space!

Walking The 3 Yorkshire Peaks for Youth & Children.

Yes it is true! I am 41 and a half years old and have decided if I don't get this walk in now I may never do one. I will be walking 24.5 miles over three Yorkshire peaks to raise money for CMS Youth and Children's work in the UK. If you would like to sponsor me then just click on the donate button in my side bar on this Tikhtak blog or click on this just giving link. You can read more about the walk there too.

Back from another part of Europe

I arrived back from a sunny and Eastery Mission Net in Oldenburg to a cold, and season-less London. In all about 3000 young people came together from across Europe to study and engage with the theme of Mission . I was reminded on more than one occasion that Britain is part of Europe and it is important we join with our neighbours in God's Mission. Having lived in Prague for around 10 years I do have a sense of how every country has its own national identity and Britain is not alone in this. My highlights were leading a seminar with Jill Ford from All nationscollege on mission and Creative arts. It was great to finally work together and it was well received by all. I was also really glad to meet again Mime/Actor Carlos Martinez who performed on the main stage. I first came across him 10 years ago on n IFES conference and was so impressed by him that I went on a summer school he ran in Germany.  I interviewed him fro trax16 and talked about the possibility of bringing him to the UK...Watch this space. Perhaps the final highlight was being able to network with people from all over Europe and get a perspective on what is going on both there and in the UK  Check out my pics on Flicker

Joining a Mission Net in Germany

Over Easter I will be attending a conference in Germany bringing together young people from all over Europe to look at the theme of Mission. I will be leading a workshop with Jill Ford from All Nations college on Mission and Creative Arts. At the beginning of our workshop we will set up some stations around the room showcasing some missional creative arts projects from round the world. I will be talking about World to Rights and trax16 but will also share about a version of The Apprentice run last year in South London to champion models of biblical leadership. Ammie, an Actor from Battersea came up with the idea as an antidote to all the bad press about youth and gun and knife crime. After an interview process 24 young people were selected and competed in two teams in exactly the same way as the TV version. The project was so successful that this summer she will be running a London wide version. I will also share about the work of Neema Crafts in Tanzania. With both of these projects and many more nothing could have been achieved without collaboration and drawing on different peoples skills and abilities. That will be one of the main objectives of our workshop as we work with youngpeople from all across Europe. Especially in  working together across borders.

Liverpool Cathedral - A safe place to take risks

In the shadow of Tracey Emim’s Neon art installation “For You” in Liverpool Cathedral we ran our World to Rightsday with 150 school children from local schools. To see how we got on check out our blog. But I wanted to comment on the impact the Cathedral has had on me. Last week I blogged about how impressed I had been by Aston Villa FC’s work within the local community, well Liverpool Cathedral has restored my hope in the mission of a cathedral!

As you enter a big sign tells you that the cathedral is “The Great Space.” One thing the cathedral is aware of is that space is a valuable commodity and it is happy to share it with anyone who comes in and to be flexible in the way it does it.  The next thing you see is their mission Statement which ends with "The Cathedral is a centre for hospitality, welcoming all its visitors and affirming their common humanity" - The Neon light’s of Tracey Emim’s installation is then proof of this. Talk about taking a risk allowing her to put a pink strobe of writing under a stain glass window!  But what this also says is that the Cathedral is happy to allow its city to express itself in its so called sacred space on their own terms. Although her message may look tacky to some, it carries  a very personal  feel, “I felt you and I know you loved me.”  and it makes any onlooker aware the distinct lack of contemporary Christian symbols.

We certainly felt the love from Liverpool cathedral throughout the day. One of our team in conversation with the Deans wife Caroline asked about the use of space in the cathedral and she shared that a new strap line is being considered - A safe place to take risks! This is obviously happening already allowing 160 children to run free and perform a World to Rights play. May be all the risk taking stuff happens at that end of the cathedral! All I can suggest for the success or failure of Liverpool Cathedral in its mission is... to watch this space!

Check out our Manila DVD extract on Youtube

In the Autumn 2008 the CMS Youth and Children's team set off with Tim Dendy (Freelance film maker) to make a DVD about the lives of a group of street children in Manila. We worked with a CMS mission partners in a street children's outreach project called jigsaw and worked with children who regularly attend this program. The experience was an incredibly rich one as we hung out with these young people over a period of 10 days. Their lives, struggles and responsibilities left our team feeling  humbled and inadequate to offer any real help or solutions. This is why the work of Jigsaw is so important as well as the aim of our World to Rights project to raise money for similar children's projects around the world. The DVD is due for official release in April but as a little foretaste you can see a preview on youtube.